Collins v Trimatic Contract Services Pty Ltd and Ors (No.2)

In *Collins v Trimatic Contract Services Pty Ltd and Ors (No.2)*, heard in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, the applicant sought an order for the inspection of a document referred to in an affidavit filed by the respondents. The central dispute concerned whether this document, described as a database or data repository, qualified as a "document" for the purposes of the *Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001* (Cth) and was therefore subject to inspection.

The primary legal issue before Judge Jarrett was to determine the scope of the term "document" as used in the Rules, specifically whether it encompassed digital data repositories. The court was required to consider whether the nature of the information stored within the database, and the manner in which it was accessed and presented, brought it within the definition of a document for the purposes of discovery and inspection.

Judge Jarrett reasoned that the term "document" in the context of court rules is generally interpreted broadly to include any material on which information is recorded or from which information can be derived. His Honour found that the database, which contained information relevant to the proceedings and was referred to in an affidavit, constituted a document for the purposes of the Rules. The court ordered the production and inspection of the database, holding that the respondents could not rely on its digital format to avoid their disclosure obligations.